Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. (WMC) Shares Up 7.5%

Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. (NYSE:WMC) shares shot up 7.5% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $10.98 and last traded at $10.95, with a volume of 876,333 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $10.19.

A number of research firms recently commented on WMC. Wunderlich raised shares of Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $9.50 to $11.00 in a research report on Friday. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 26th. Wells Fargo & Co. downgraded shares of Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 11th. Finally, Bank of America Corp. downgraded shares of Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.80.

The stock’s market capitalization is $456.50 million. The company has a 50 day moving average of $9.70 and a 200-day moving average of $9.75.

Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. (NYSE:WMC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $21.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.92 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 37.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. will post $2.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 5th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 30th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.39%.

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. stock. Russell Frank Co boosted its position in Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. (NYSE:WMC) by 287.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 225,797 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 167,508 shares during the period. Russell Frank Co owned about 0.54% of Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. worth $2,319,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.